Express & Star

Football club is going home

After more than a year away from home, Bilston Town Football Club is preparing to return to its newly-restored Queen Street ground this weekend.

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After more than a year away from home, Bilston Town Football Club is preparing to return to its newly-restored Queen Street ground this weekend.

They moved last year after more than 120 vandal attacks in five years.

But after a refurbishment project to spruce up its rundown clubhouse, dressing rooms and terraces, bosses are keen to bring back the glory days and are preparing for the team's first home match on Saturday. It is believed around £500,000 has been ploughed into the refurbishment.

Work was timed to try and ensure the team was back at home in time for the season to start.

The team has been forced to play its matches at Bantock Park since last year because of the state of the ground but recently signed a new 99-year lease at the site.

Bilston councillor Bert Turner, who will be cheering on the team when they take on Warley Development at home on Saturday, said: "We are over the moon that the team will be back at home.

"People living near the club have had to put up with such a lot and the site has really deteriorated over the years but they will be playing the first home game of the season on Saturday and it is fantastic."

Following the refurbishment, bosses are now hoping to plough forward with a £12 million transformation of the site, which includes creating a 70-bedroom hotel and shops complex at the site.

Under the plans, striking floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass entrance would be created alongside the leisure complex in moves which would bring around 100 jobs to the area.

Bosses are certain the creation of the hotel complex and revamp of the current tired, vandal-hit building will thrust the 113-year-old club into a new era.

Nick Chapman, from Tweedale Architects, which has drawn up the designs, said that the club had set out standards higher than its current league status with a view to winning promotions over the upcoming years.

Councillor Turner said the plans were "fantastic" and would be great for everybody in the area.

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